The Stars Between Us
by Dianora
Summary: Takes place during The Zentraedi Rebellion by Jack McKinney, about three months after The Macross Saga. You don't have to have read that, but it helps. Just know Rick and Lisa argued about his getting promoted on their way to the satellite. Sap ahead.


_And me without my white truce flag_, Lisa thought sourly as she and Rick finally returned to the quarters provided for them onboard the satellite. The air between them was still strained, and she knew at least part of that was her fault. Prior to their first meeting earlier that day they'd been given three hours to rest and acclimate to the low level of gravity, but Lisa had been so pissed about their morning argument in the limo that she'd actually done as the ensign assigned to them suggested and took a nap rather than take the chance of going another ten rounds with Rick. So there hadn't been a chance to clear the air and now -- now, she was distracted by the enormity of the task set before her today.

They were going to have to make some sacrifices, and she knew she could handle it -- had no choice, really -- but what about Rick? And what would happen, as a result, to their all-too-new relationship? True, most of the time she felt they were bedrock-strong, but other times….well, other times their state of the union appeared as fragile as current human/Zentraedi relations.

She watched him as he fiddled with the room console, trying to figure out how to turn up the heat, not looking at her. His muscles, the lines of his back, were bunched tight with tension despite the lower level of gravity.

"You should talk to Max and Miriya when you get back," she ventured, her arms folded across her chest. "Maybe you can get a better sense from them as to how things stand with the Zentraedi."

"Yeah," he said. "I was planning on it." He jabbed a button and turned to face her, a determined look in his eyes. "I don't want any more…" He broke off, suppressed a curse. "I was going to say 'incidents.' _Incidents_. When what I really mean is _slaughter_. I don't want any more slaughter on our hands, Lisa."

"Me neither," she said, trying to keep the snap out of her voice. "You know that."

He blew out a breath. "Yeah. I do," he said, and she hoped he believed that. "Hey, you, uh, handled Maistroff pretty well back there," he added, a bit awkwardly.

A white truce flag of his own, perhaps? "Thanks," she said. "I have a bit of experience dealing with men like him. I'm my father's daughter, after all."

"Right."

Silence stretched between them. Rick flexed his fingers, looked ready to flee.

Lisa sighed. "Rick, there's something we need to talk about," she said.

His blue eyes darkened like stormy skies. "If it's about this morning --"

"No." She took a step closer to him. How to put this? _You won't have to worry about any more mornings for a while?_ "You see, the thing is -- I don't know when I'll be back."

He raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

She took a deep breath, then spewed the words out in a rush. "If one thing has become clear to me on this trip, it's that we need to get the SDF-3 on-line and battle-ready as quickly as possible, with minimal delays or screwups, and if that's going to happen, it means I need to _be_ here, on the satellite, to make sure that everything stays on schedule. I'm the best -- maybe the only -- person to do it. So I'm not going downside today. And I don't know when I will be again. Not for…" She swallowed. "Probably not for some time."

Rick blinked rapidly, trying to process what she was throwing at him. "But your apartment --"

"I'll arrange to have my things sent up here immediately," she said. "In fact, I believe some of that is already being taken care of for me."

He seemed to sway on his feet a bit, then a thought occurred to him. "Did you know you were going to do this before we came up here today?" he asked. His jaw muscles clenched. "Did you know in the car?"

Lisa averted her gaze. "I didn't know for certain. But I knew it was a possibility," she admitted.

"And you didn't tell me? _And_ you let us get into a fight?" he said.

"Well, it's not like that was an unusual occurrence," she said with a grim smile. "Besides, when you're upset with me, I want to know about it, Rick. We've spent too much time ignoring our feelings to afford to be anything but honest with each other now. Don't you think?"

"Of course I do," he said, a big grudgingly. "Even when it makes me crazy."

"Mmm hmm."

"But if you want us to be honest with each other, that's all the more reason you should have told me this morning."

"I didn't see the point when I didn't know for sure what kind of progress report Lang would have for us. It was entirely possible I'd be traveling right back home with you tonight. And then we got a little sidetracked, if you remember," she pointed out.

Rick opened his mouth, closed it. Scrubbed a hand through his thick black hair. "Dammit, Lisa, I don't like the idea of going back without you."

"I don't like it either," she said. "Maybe one of the reasons I didn't tell you this morning is because I didn't even want to think about it. But it's happening, whether either of us likes it or not.

"However…I did manage to get them to hold the shuttle departure for a few more hours. Breetai is even sending over dinner -- not Zentraedi cuisine, I hope -- and…we'll have some time to be alone."

A corner of his mouth quirked. "Admiral Hayes, are you trying to seduce me?"

"The thought did cross my mind," she said lightly. Then she sighed. "I hate fighting with you, you know."

"I hate it too. And it doesn't -- none of it changes the way I feel about you."

_Doesn't it?_ she wondered, but didn't want to push it. Not here, not now. "So you're not going to leave me for some hot Zentraedi malcontent as soon as you get planetside?" she joked instead.

He grinned. "And what I wouldn't give to see _that_ particular throwdown…"

"Oh, so you're assuming you're worth fighting for?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well, I am a Vice Admiral now," he said, and if he was able to joke about that, well, things couldn't be all that bad. She felt her heart swell and abruptly had enough of the teasing. She closed the distance between them, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him hard.

His arms stole around her waist and he returned the kiss, his mouth opening to hers, his fingers digging into the fabric of her uniform. After the chill between them this morning it was a relief to feel the heat of him, of _them_, and she felt a familiar weakening in her knees when his lips moved to her throat.

"I love you," he whispered against her ear, and if he always seemed to say it after they'd fought, it wasn't the only time he said it, either, so it all worked out in the end. She pulled away briefly, her hands on his head, and met his eyes. It seemed to hit them both at once, the fact that they didn't know how long it would be until they could be together like this again. Their mouths fused once more, almost frantic this time, rough and filled with need, and when soon it became a race to see who could get their clothes off the fastest as they made their way to the bed nestled in an alcove off the main room.

"I don't think I've ever had sex in space before," Rick observed at one point.

She eyed him skeptically. "What about on the SDF-1? You and Minmei trapped together for days?"

"Nope." He undid the clasp on her bra and slipped the undergarment off of her. "This is about to become a truly landmark day."

"Well, had I known, I would have requested a bottle of champagne with dinner," she said, then let out a surprised laugh as he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down onto the bed.

They made love tenderly, affectionately, leisurely -- all too aware that there wouldn't be a next time for far too long. His touch was familiar, his body reacting the way she knew so well, and as she arched up against him Lisa savored, as she always did, the strength of their bond here, when it was just the two of them, no external forces, no responsibilities or pressures, just Lisa Hayes and Rick Hunter, together, alone, connected.

When they were finally spent, they lay on their sides, arms wrapped around each other tightly, enjoying the simple feel of skin against skin, their breath mingling, faces inches apart.

"I really like it when you're naked," Rick said as if the thought had just occurred to him.

"Do you now."

He grinned. "Yeah. In fact, I think you should sleep naked the entire time you're up here," he said. "So I can imagine you between the sheets just like this," he pulled her against him, "every night."

Her jaw dropped and, embarrassingly, she could feel her cheeks go pink. She was still never sure quite how to respond to such things. "And what if there's an emergency scramble and some hapless ensign bursts in here to await further orders?" she sputtered. "Or Lang comes barging in with some imagined crisis or other? I think I'd rather maintain my dignity, thank you very much."

He let out an exaggerated, long-suffering sigh. "Fine. It doesn't really matter. You can't control my imagination." He waggled his brows at her.

She rolled her eyes.

"And just to show there's no hard feelings, even though you won't accommodate my very reasonable request, I'll swing by your place when I get back," he said. "Make sure the mover monkeys don't break anything."

"Thank you," she said. "It would be a load off my mind, I admit."

"No problem." He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, then nuzzled her hair. "It's going to be weird not being able to just drop by your place for a beer after getting off patrol in the middle of the night," he noted.

_You shouldn't be going on patrol any longer anyway_, she thought, but bit her tongue. "Well, you could buy your own beer for a change, instead of relying on my always keeping it in stock for you. I know it's a huge responsibility, Rick, but I'm sure that with a little perseverance and just a dash of determination you can maybe, just maybe, make it work."

"Wow, you're a regular comedian, Lisa," he said. "I can't believe you aren't booked on a tour of the galaxy by now."

"It's only due to my many other responsibilities," she said with a rueful sigh. He grinned and kissed her, and it was a while before they finally came back up for air.

They settled back in the pillows, Rick tracing the lines of her face with his fingers, fighter jock calluses rough against her skin. Despite the tenderness -- or maybe because of it -- she felt a sudden surge of anxiety.

"Do you think we'll be okay?" she whispered, hating the pleading quality she heard in her voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…we haven't been together all that long, really," she pointed out. "Doesn't it worry you -- the separation? What if --"

"Don't." He cut her off, but his voice was gentle. "The what ifs aren't worth thinking about it. Sure, if I'm being honest, I'm a little worried -- scared is probably the better word. But I'm more scared about how much I'm going to miss you than anything else. You and me -- we're solid. I know we are."

"Even with a morning like the one we just had?"

He nodded. "Look," he said, propping himself up on one elbow and looking down at her, "you and I have a fundamental disagreement about what my role in the REF should be. And that's an argument that's probably not going to end any time soon. But I'm still here, and I'm not going anywhere. And at the end of the day that's what matters. I'm still going to be with you, regardless of what role I play. _You're_ my constant, Lisa, not the REF."

Lisa noted with dismay Rick's suggestion that he might end up in a role she didn't approve of, but was determined not to start another fight before he left. Besides, she was convinced that once he was planetside and dealing with the complicated mess that was erupting down there, his childish determination to remain Skull Leader would seem irrelevant. How could he see it any other way?

So instead of instigating, she batted her eyes at him in a way that was as coquettish as she ever managed, which was to say, not so much. "It will be hard being apart for so long, but -- there is always the phone," she pointed out.

"Phone sex? Now that would be another landmark in our relationship." He leered at her affectionately.

She fought back another blush. "Well, one of the perks of being an admiral is meriting a secure line," she said with mock solemnity. "Anything said during our conversations would be completely classified."

"Good, because what I'd like to say to you is probably illegal under some obscure clause of the UEG bylaws."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from a maverick such as yourself," she said, glad she was starting to get better at this.

"Maverick, huh?" he said, running his hand over her bare hip. "I'll show you maverick --"

But then the door chimed, and Lisa raised an eyebrow at him as if to say, _you see why I can't sleep in the nude up here, smart guy_? "One minute," she called out, then watched with amusement as Rick jumped out of bed and hustled to pull on his pants. "It's probably just a service robot with dinner," she said.

"Good, because I'm starving." He walked over to the door, bare-chested, and hit the open key. "It's about time -- err, hi there, Exedore."

"Forgive me, Admiral, I did not wish to intrude," the Zentraedi said, as Lisa slid beneath the sheets and pulled them up over her head. "I thought I would accompany your dinner personally, so as to -- oh my," Lisa heard him say, and clearly he had spotted her form beneath the sheets and ascertained what was going on. "My -- my sincere apologies indeed, Admiral," the scientist stammered. "I had no idea that you and Admiral Hayes --"

"It's fine, Exedore," Rick said, and through the thin material of the sheet Lisa could distinguish the shape of him as he hustled the diminutive Zentraedi back out the door. "Thanks for bringing us dinner, that was, uh, swell of you."

"Certainly. If there's anything --"

"We'll let you know," Rick said, and hit the close button. He leaned against the door for a moment and regarded the ceiling wearily.

Lisa poked her head out from under the sheet. "Well, that was embarrassing."

"On the plus side, _he'll _be too embarrassed to tell anyone about it," Rick said.

"Thank God."

"And on another plus side, we now have food," he pointed out. He wheeled the small table over to the bed and lifted the polymer covering from the tray. "Hmm, not the most appetizing spread I've ever seen," he said, surveying the largely reconstituted menu.

Lisa peered over to look. Some sort of chicken substitute, potatoes…was that supposed to be pudding? "Clearly I'll have to do something about the food supply up here," she said, grimacing.

"I'm hungry enough that I don't even care right now," Rick said with a shrug, and sat down next to her on the bed.

They talked quietly while they ate, reminding each other of last minute details, focusing on the small stuff rather than the larger challenges facing them. When they were done, Rick lay down on the bed with a satisfied sigh. "When is that shuttle supposed to depart?"

Lisa glanced at the clock on the wall. "In about ninety minutes," she estimated.

He tugged at the sheet Lisa had wrapped around herself. "Plenty of time," he said.

The second time around was short but sweet, and eventually they resigned themselves to the inevitable and dragged themselves out of bed to shower and dress.

As they were about to head out the door toward the shuttle dock, Rick pulled her close.

"Just remember this, okay?" he whispered into her hair. "Just you and me, in this room. Everything else -- we'll figure it out."

She nodded, put her hands on either side of his face to bring him in for a kiss. "I love you. I'll call you whenever I can," she said, already knowing those opportunities wouldn't occur nearly as often as either of them would like.

"Me too, on both counts," he said, his gaze serious, and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

She inclined her head toward the door. "Your ship awaits."

He drew himself up, looking every inch a commanding officer, even if he didn't realize it. Then he reached for her hand and squeezed it. "Okay," he said. "We can do this."

She squeezed back, thinking of all the obstacles they still faced. "We have to," she said simply, and hoped one day he'd finally understand that.

End.


End file.
